Zutara: The Search for Ursa
by Spazzfreeks
Summary: Zuko will stop at nothing to find his mother. Katara will stop at nothing to fill the holes of her heart. Two kids with tormented pasts. One story to tell. They will travel the world in search of what they hold most important.
1. Zuko and Mai

Chapter 1: Zuko and Mai

"Zuko?" Zuko responded to Mai with a completely vague grunt.

"Zuko! I'm talking to you!" Mai snapped at him.

"Mai! I'm looking over very important documents!" Zuko tried to keep his voice level. Suddenly a servant came in. Mai glared daggers at him, while Zuko's eyes widened with excitement and hope.

"Firelord Zuko, we have uncovered those documents you asked for."

"Excellent. All the banishings through the time my father and mother were married to the time Azula was nearly crowned Firelord? And all information that could be found on each person?" The servant bowed deeply.

"Yes, my Lord." then the servant waved in four boys who couldn't have been older than fourteen. They were all hauling absolutely huge stacks of scrolls.

"Excellent!" Zuko praised, taking the scrolls from the boys. After he had the scrolls splayed across an enormous table in the middle of the room he gave each kid a gold piece for their help, then asked the servant if he could arrange someone to come by and filed the scrolls in his office soon. The servant bowed and left to do as he was told.

Mai just stood and glared at all of them. The servant hadn't even looked at her. Neither had the little kids. It seemed to her like the only one who existed around the Fire Palace was Zuko. It was always about Zuko. She had even had to get herself out of prison. Zuko didn't come for her, or at least send for her, no he had ignored her until she'd finally been able to release herself. Zuko started sifting through the piles and piles of scrolls.

"Clues about my mother must be here somewhere!" he was obsessed.

"That's what I'm here about." Mai said through her teeth. Zuko's head shot up, and he finally looked at her.

"Did you find something out?" he asked, his voice brimming over with hope.

"No! That's your problem! You're obsessed! I can't stand it! You hardly even talk to me anymore! No one will pay attention to me! At the beginning all my maids would fawn over me. 'Can I get you anything my Lady?'" Mai imitated her many servants.

"Is that what this is about? You're not getting enough attention?" Zuko asked disgusted.

"Yes! You barely _look_ at me anymore! What's wrong with you? You've live without your mother for years, and now you have one tiny chance of finding her and you'll do anything! Even forget about _me._ Your true love. Your other half. The apple of your eye. The reason for your being!" Mai rambled on and on creating more phrases symbolizing her important role at Zuko's side.

"Wait! You want me to choose you over my _mother_. The woman who gave birth to me! The woman who protected me? The only woman I had loved for so many, many years? You want me to choose you over her?" Zuko was beginning to question Mai's sanity.

"Of course! I'm much more important than that lady. I make your life worth living. I make you happy. It's me _or_ your mother. I'm not settling. I need someone devoted to Me." her arrogant expression turned to a murderous glare, "You _used_ to be devoted to me and only me! Then you left! How could you leave? Leave me!? And then when you became Firelord I thought you'd finally have time to focus on me, but then you started becoming obsessed with your mother. I feel I've lost purpose in your life. But I know that that's silly because you of course will choose me. You've always chosen me when it really mattered." Mai concluded with all the confidence of the world. Zuko shook his head.

"But that's a lie. You've always been good at that. Lying to yourself, I mean. But no, Mai. I'm not choosing you this time. Just like when I made the biggest decision of my life, I'm choosing what's more important to me than you. Mai, I think I've realized that if there are things more important than you, then you're not my true love. My other half is still out there. Maybe I'll be able to find her after I find my mother." Mai's face contorted with rage.

"What are you saying! You're... you're... YOU'RE BREAKING UP WITH ME!?" she howled. Zuko looked her strait in the eye – he didn't want any confusion on the subject,

"Yes, Mai, I'm breaking up with you."

"No!" she screeched, drawing out the vowel. In her blind fury, she pulled a dagger from her sleeve and raced towards him. Out of nowhere a rock flung from a corner of the room. It turned into a thick cuff and held Mai to the wall. The three Dy Lee agents who had been watching secretly stalked from their hiding places. Zuko was glad he'd decided the Dy Lee were useful.

"Are you going to press charges, my Lord?" one of them asked as they locked chains around Mai's wrists.

"She just tried to take my life all because I want to find my mother. Yes. I'm pressing charges. She is a danger to all. Put her back in the Boiling Rock. Make sure they keep an eye on her. If she really wants to I'm sure she'll manage an escape somehow." Zuko commanded. Mai's hate-filled glare of death only made Zuko surer that he'd done the right thing. She really would have killed him if she'd been given the opportunity.

"Uncle?" Zuko asked that night. Iroh had already heard of Zuko's potentially fatal break up.

"Yes?" he asked finishing his Jasmine Tea.

"I've decided. I still don't know who I am – personality wise. I still don't know what I'm looking for. I've uncovered enough about my mother that I think I'll search some places, and while doing that I will search for the one who will complete me, but I know I can only do that when I find my mom. So, please Uncle, I know its not what you want, but will you please rule as regent until I return? Please? I need to find out who I am!"

"Yes Zuko. I know what it's like to not know who you are. Of course I will rule in your place." Zuko wrapped Iroh in a tight hug.

"Thank you Uncle."

**Author's Note: I'm doing this with a friend, this chapter was by me Emily.**


	2. Katara and Aang

Chapter 2: Katara and Aang

"Bye Katara." Aang sighed as he left for an earth-bending lesson with Toph. He _still_ hadn't mastered most of the advanced lessons.

"See ya." She didn't even look at him. She was knitting another scarf – water tribe colors as always. She dearly missed her home. It didn't help that she and Aang had grown surprisingly distant. He had fulfilled his roll and given the world a new start. He was a hero who had recombined the Fire Nation with the rest of the world. Wasn't that enough for her? Who could even dare ask for more than the Avatar? She didn't know. She didn't know anything anymore. The more she thought about it, the more it became clear to her that Aang had always just been a solution. He'd been the solution to the war that plagued her family, and he'd been just the tool she'd used to finally learn water-bending. What she had felt for him – the feeling she'd thought of as love – didn't seem to be the right love. She remembered all her crushes: Haru, Jet, and who could forget her fling with the Cabbage Man? The feelings she'd had for them had been different. Not simply less powerful, but different in another way too. At the beginning of Katara and Aang's relationship she'd assumed her feelings were just too strong to truly be compared to other feelings, but now she saw that had been a lie.

Aang sighed again and walked away from her silent figure. He truly did love her. He'd never really met a girl before Katara. He loved her so much. She'd always been the one he was after. He hadn't ever considered anyone except her, but he was realizing – slowly but surely – that she was beginning to question the relationship he'd worked so hard for.

He finally saw Toph waiting for him. She was leaning against one of the pillars surround one of the many huge courtyards of the Ba Sing Se Palace. Toph felt Aang's approach. His gentle but careless steps were indicative of his personality. She wished more than ever that she could see. That she could know exactly what Aang looked like, so that she could look into his eyes. So that she could see herself in a mirror and make sure she was beautiful like Katara must be. She faked a huge smirk.

"S'up Aang?" She called to him as he closed in.

"Hi Toph!" Aang shouted joyously. Toph elbowed him in the ribs. It didn't hurt as much as it used to.

"All right! Let's get it on!" She shouted dramatically at the sky.

It was a noisy and strenuous lesson. Perfect. It was just the thing to take both of their minds off that subject.

After their earth-bending session, Toph and Aang sat in the shade of one of the columns and ate papaya. Aang stood up,

"Thanks Toph. I think I got it now. Are you busy tomorrow, because I want to practice more!" Toph stood up too.

"Well, I think we should spend more time together." she hinted.

"Yeah. We haven't hung out much ever since before the whole Comet thing." Aang replied not understanding. Toph decided she was going to have to do this less subtly. She took a step further and pinned Aang to the pillar behind him. She batted her eyelashes hoping it would look attractive. It did. Aang's heart was suddenly racing. He'd been trying very hard not to think about what a beautiful young woman Toph was becoming, but her simple flirtatious actions had torn his efforts apart.

Toph leaned closer and closer until she could breath in the sweet scent of Aang's breath. Her lips got closer and closer to his. She put her hands on his chest. Aang wrapped his arms around her waist. She couldn't tell if this was an automatic response or he had really wanted to pull her closer to himself.

Aang didn't know himself. It felt like both, but more of the second. He wasn't fighting at all. Hardly any of him had the will to fight back. This was what he wanted. Toph pressed her soft lips to his. It was like flying. Soaring in the sky and through clouds. Or at least it would have been if he hadn't known the feeling was much better.

For Toph, the kiss was the electric pulse of feeling someone earth bend, or like the exhilaration of metal bending. It was amazing and wonderful. It was better than anything she'd ever experienced.

Aang pulled her as close to himself as possible. Toph pushed her lips against Aang's with all the strength she could muster. Suddenly she heard a voice come from nowhere. Had someone approached them? She hadn't felt anything.

"Aang?" It was Katara. Aang pushed Toph away enough to look a little dignified.

"Katara I..."

"Save it." Katara grumbled. _That's odd_. Toph thought. _Her heart beat isn't exactly steady but its beating with... what is that joy? Is she glad she doesn't have to pretend with Aang anymore?_

"I was going to break up with you anyway. This makes it easier. Now that I know for sure your transition to life without me, as a girlfriend will be virtually painless, I'll just go and say it so we can get it over with. Aang. I don't love you. I'm not sure I ever did. This is the end of _us_." Toph noticed that Katara was being a bit harsher than necessary. She also noticed that none of her words had been lies.

Aang was silent. Two conflicting feelings raged inside him. He felt absolutely miserable for the obvious hurt he'd put on Katara and yet he was so happy because he'd finally had the epiphany he'd been waiting for. He finally knew whom he wanted. He felt complete. Toph was his other half. Together they balanced each other. They were a perfect match.

Toph hugged Aang's arm as Katara walked away.

"I'm sorry, Aang." she whispered.

"It's alright. It was my fault all this happened in first place. I'm not the only one who was released just now. She's been released too." Toph sighed theatrically,

"You know, it's too bad Zuko is with Mai and living in the Fire Nation. Katara and Zuko are a just right for each other."

"No, Katara couldn't be with Zuko when he's tied down at the Fire Nation like he is. Katara needs and wants to go back to the South Pole. Therefore she needs a guy who is willing to do that for her... I never was that guy."

"It must be tough without even Sokka. Do you think he wants to go back to the South Pole?" Toph asked.

"No, I think he's plenty happy on Kyoshi."

"Yeah... It's really sad that Katara doesn't have anyone now." Toph said again, but tightened her grip on Aang's arm. Aang put his hand on her shoulder.

"She'll find Him. I know she will." despite everything that had just happened Aang still loved Katara even if it was only a family love.


End file.
